


Not Married

by suneye



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Happy, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, age of ultron never happened, clintasha is basically married, implied cuddling, karen's part is just a cameo, tasha is a cute nickname, they go grocery shopping at one point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 03:46:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4206753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suneye/pseuds/suneye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha has to stay over at Clint's place for a few days, and accidentally becomes the mother of his child.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Married

**Author's Note:**

> Who-a heyy this is my first fic on AO3, and I'm sorry it's terrible, but I really wanted to upload it. It's just meant to be plot-less fluff. Check out my tumblr (sayheeeymisscartinelli) and leave any feedback you have. Thank you!

* * *

 

The fourth time Clint clumsily staggers into the baby room at three in the morning, rubbing his eyes and swearing under his breath, only to find Natasha already gently rocking Cooper back to sleep while singing a lullaby, he begins to realize something is probably not normal.

“Need any help?” He asks groggily, as he does every time Natasha gets to his kid before him. She shakes her head, not looking at him.

“You sure?”

Natasha sighs. “Go away, Barton.” She whispers as she walks over to the door and swiftly closes it in his face. All Clint can think as climbs back into bed and falls right back sleep again is that she is probably going to murder him and steal his baby soon.

*

“Aww, pancakes…” Clint moans miserably as he burns yet another one. It really is a miracle that his ex-wife trusted him with an _entire freaking baby_ , considering he can’t even do the easiest parenting tasks such as making an edible breakfast successfully. 

Natasha walks into the kitchen yawning. Her hair is messy and there are bags under her eyes. Clint smiles. He used to think she always looked perfect, with her full red lips and green eyes and shoulder-length wavy hair, back before they became best friends and she started spending nights at his place. It is a well-kept secret of everyone close to her that in the mornings, Natasha Romanoff is anything but stunning.

Clint, of course, still finds her beautiful in this state, but that’s just the kind of thing you think about your best friend by default.

“I swear to god, those assholes are just trying to get more money out of me.” Natasha says angrily, dropping her phone on the kitchen table and grabbing the plate of burnt pancakes from the counter.

“Watch your language in front of my kid!” Clint scolds.

“Fuck, sorry.” Natasha chuckles when Clint responds by tapping her on the nose with his wooden spoon.

“So I take it they’re not done with your apartment yet?” He turns off the stove, defeated – fruits seem like a much better breakfast idea, anyway.

“Apparently not.” Natasha says. “It might take another week.” She bites her lip. “Is it okay if I stay with you? ‘Cause if not, Steve’s pretty lonely.”

“And make me raise this little demon by myself?!” Clint says, pinching Cooper’s cheek lovingly, making him laugh.  “Tasha, don’t even joke about it.”

“Oh, is that why you keep me around, then? As your free babysitter?”

“ _Free_?” Clint exclaims. “You take four hours in the shower and eat more than my entire extended family combined! I should be charging you for _breathing_!”

Natasha blows him a kiss and smiles through a mouthful of (undoubtedly shitty) pancakes, and Clint can’t help but find that adorable.

*

“Do we need more yogurt?”

“No, I bought enough the other week.”

“Are those perhaps expired?”

“I…don’t know, yeah, let’s get some yogurt.”

Natasha smiles as she places picks out some overpriced Greek yogurt and places it in the shopping cart. “Without me, you’d be dead, Barton.”

“And without _me_ , _you’d_ be trying to fall asleep to Steve playing obscure 1940’s jazz in the middle of the night.”

“If you think Steve’s music taste only gets as bad as lame jazz at midnight, you have clearly never seen him drunk.”

“Nobody’s seen Steve drunk, Tasha.”

Natasha winks. “That’s what he wants everyone to think.” She smiles at Cooper in his stroller before pushing the cart to the next aisle with no further explanation, followed closely by a very confused Clint, who decides prying is not worth it, and reads their shopping list instead.

“Okay, we need coffee and baby food.”

“Baby food’s over there.” Natasha points at the end of the next aisle, walking faster. Before Clint can match his pace with hers, he notices a blonde woman staring at Cooper with a small smile, as friendly-looking young women often do. She catches him looking and walks over, looking a little embarrassed.

“Sorry.” She says. “I didn’t mean to be creepy. Your baby’s really cute.”

Clint chuckles. “Yeah, well, some of my genes are in there, after all.”

The woman laughs. “Mind if I ask his name?”

“Cooper.”

The woman leans down to wave at Cooper, who looks beyond delighted to see her. “Hi cutie,” She says in a baby-voice, then straightens up and extends a hand towards Clint. “I’m Karen.”

“Clint.” He shakes her hand.

“I’m Natasha.” Karen jumps as Natasha walks towards them with the overflowing shopping cart, having added Cooper’s favorite foods to it. She has a pleasant smile on her lips, but her jaw is tense, unsurprisingly, as she is always more worried about Cooper’s safety than she really needs to be.

“Hi,” Karen shakes Natasha’s hand, too. “Sorry. I was just telling your husband that your baby’s–”

“Oh, I’m not the mother,” Natasha says as Clint stumbles over the words “she’s not my wife; we’re just friends”, getting out a “she’s not my friend” and a “my not-wife – friend” before he manages to get out the whole sentence in the proper order.

Karen blushes, but Clint is sure his cheeks are redder. “Oh, sorry, I just assumed…” She shakes her head. “Right, well, it was nice meeting you. Take care of the little one. Um, have a nice day.” She leaves with another cheerful smile. Natasha turns to Clint.

“Come on,” She says. “We still need to get coffee.”

“Sorry, it’s hard to work efficiently with all these attractive women trying to steal my baby. Yourself included, of course.”

“If I wanted to steal your baby, Clint, I’d have done it by now.”

“So what, you just wanna raise him with me?”

He’s joking, but Natasha sounds completely serious when she shrugs and says “maybe”.

*

After Clint puts Cooper to bed later that night, he joins Natasha where she is sitting on the couch reading with a beer in her hand.

“Beer is shit.” He comments.

“I know.” She hands it to him and he takes a swig without hesitation. “And parenting is hard, huh?”

“I know it too well.” Clint now has no intention of returning Natasha’s drink to her.

“You’re doing fine.”

“So are you.”

Natasha laughs. “I’m not a mother, Clint. You know that.”

“You’d make the best mom ever.” He says, and means it.

“Maybe.” She smiles sadly. “I doubt we’ll ever know.”

“Cooper knows.”

The look Natasha gives him is indescribable. Equal parts confusion and gratitude and…something else Clint can’t quite figure out. He’s not sure whether she is going to hug him or punch him or burst into tears.

And this…whatever it is…is the most honest emotion Natasha has ever allowed herself to express. 

Clint catches himself right as he’s leaning in, and jerks back. He wasn’t thinking about it, but he’s sure he was about to kiss her. If he had, he’s not sure he could ever forgive himself for taking advantage of her vulnerability like that. Natasha doesn’t seem to have noticed. She’s still staring at him, so he stares back. It’s absolutely silent for a few seconds, then Natasha looks away, pursing her lips together.

“I’m not…” She says in a voice steadier than Clint had expected. “I’m not using Coop to fill a gap in my heart or anything, if that’s what…”

“Tasha, no,” Clint whispers, mentally slapping himself because of course she took it the wrong way you stupid fucking idiot why did you say it like that! “That’s not what I’m saying. I just…” He needs to take a moment, gather his thoughts, say the right thing… “You’re very important to Cooper and I. And I know we’re important to you too, and you would never hurt us. I just wanted you to know, that I know…that you’ll be an amazing mother if you ever decide to be.”

The smile that pulls at the corners of her lips tells him that he’s spoken well, and should shut up before he messes something up again.

“Thanks, Clint.”

“Anything for my dear not-wife.”

*

Natasha doesn’t sleep in the guest room that night.

*

In fact, they’re both dozing off on the couch, curled up into each other, when Cooper starts crying hours later, startling them both awake.

“Aww, kids,” Clint mumbles as he struggles to untangle himself from Natasha’s limbs.

“I’ll go,” She offers, pulling him back down.

“No, you went last night.” Clint says. “We need to take turns if this relationship is gonna work out.”

Natasha laughs, but keeps pulling him back onto the couch by the hem of his shirt. “What _relationship_?”

“This whole you-being-my-not-wife thing. You know, if you wanna be.”

“Oh, Mister Barton! Was that a not-proposal?”

Before Clint can respond, she’s pressing her lips against his, for just a brief moment, but perhaps the sweetest ‘brief moment’ of his life. When she pulls away and lets go, Clint is pretty sure he’s either dead or dreaming, because there is no way that just happened in real life. Natasha takes his arm and stands up, pulling him to Cooper’s room.

“I’d say yes, you know. Now let’s go calm your fucking kid.”

If this is a dream, Clint is fine with never waking up.


End file.
